Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

So, I tried to do a fresh install of Oneiric, and after installation, when I'm restarting, I get a bunch of messages and a blinking underscore. I can't exactly take a screen shot, but the contents of my screen say (roughly)

At least that's what it says THIS time. Every time I boot, it looks slightly different, but they all end with a blinking underscore and then nothing happens. I have tried reinstalling with both USB and CD, as well as redownloading the iso and reinstalling, but no luck. Also, it runs fine when I just boot off the CD/USB.

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

Originally Posted by merediths

So, I tried to do a fresh install of Oneiric, and after installation, when I'm restarting, I get a bunch of messages and a blinking underscore. I can't exactly take a screen shot, but the contents of my screen say (roughly)

At least that's what it says THIS time. Every time I boot, it looks slightly different, but they all end with a blinking underscore and then nothing happens. I have tried reinstalling with both USB and CD, as well as redownloading the iso and reinstalling, but no luck. Also, it runs fine when I just boot off the CD/USB.

Is anyone else having this problem? Any solutions?

Welcome to Ubuntu!

Sidenote- Administrative wise in this forum, please post logs, commands and output within CODE tags. hjem posting or editing plaease hightlight the text , then press the "#" icon in the posting toolbar. Iaht will put the CODE tags around your selected text.

On your posted output... It looks okay, albeit the crash report line. Usually it gets about there or sooner if there a graphics problem... First you should confirm that the Linux kernel is booting.

Can you get to a Grub Menu? If you don't usually see it when booting- On boot, hold down the shift key. When the grub menu comes up, press "e'. That will put you into an edit mode. Arrow down to the line that begins with "linux". Arrow right to where is says "quiet splash vt.handoff=7" and replace it with "--verbose single". Press <cntrl><x> to boot. That should get it to try to boot the kernel with verbose meassging turned on- to a TTY Text Console.

If it finishes booting to a command prompt, the step above should confirm that everything is okay with the kernel and it's system modules. If all is well with that, then your problem lies on a different layer... In the X-Session, graphics drivers or desktop.

I'll stop there... I think that seeing the crash report generated halfway through the boot sequence, that there is some kind of problem there. It's at the point where it might be hitting the graphics and having a problem, but that doesn't usually throw a generated problem report. That concerns me.

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

Hello,

I appear to be having the exact same problem (I get the same screen on start-up). I have followed the steps in the previous post and can confirm that the problem is not kernel-related. It must therefore be another issue.

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

Originally Posted by MAFoElffen

Welcome to Ubuntu!

Can you get to a Grub Menu? If you don't usually see it when booting- On boot, hold down the shift key. When the grub menu comes up, press "e'. That will put you into an edit mode. Arrow down to the line that begins with "linux". Arrow right to where is says "quiet splash vt.handoff=7" and replace it with "--verbose single". Press <cntrl><x> to boot. That should get it to try to boot the kernel with verbose messaging turned on- to a TTY Text Console.

If it finishes booting to a command prompt, the step above should confirm that everything is okay with the kernel and it's system modules. If all is well with that, then your problem lies on a different layer... In the X-Session, graphics drivers or desktop.

@merediths, Namloc and Stepway

If it boot using the instructions highlighted above in red, then do

Code:

lspci -vnn | grep VGA

Write down those results.

Type

Code:

sudo reboot.

On boot, hold down the shift key. When the grub menu comes up, press "e'. That will put you into an edit mode. Arrow down to the line that begins with "linux". Arrow right to where is says "quiet splash" and before it says "vt.handoff=7"...
- If the output you wrote down said "nVidia", insert "nomodeset"
- If the output you wrote down say "ATI Radeon", insert "radeon.mode=0"
- If the output you wrote down said ", Intel" insert "i915.modeset=0"
Press <cntrl><x> and it will boot.

If it boot into the GUI, Click on the user_name in the upper-right-most of the top bar > select Sytem Settings > Select Additional Drivers. > Install appropriate driver.

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

Thanks for feed back. Should add, sadly, mine didn't get as far as the 1st post. I get the same result, but on the install.
It won't even run 11.10 from the flash drive. It stops during the Ubuntu 11.10 purple screen, has a brief message that begins with "B43-phyo error firmware file B43/uncode15.fw " then I end up with the screen much like that posted on the 1st thread.
I can't help thinking this is an issue with the intel gma chipsetOn my Dell 12 mini
11.04 was fine.
Stuck at this stage I don't think I can use the MAFoElffen fix? maybe the error message sheds some light?

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

Thanks for helping out MAFoElffen. I have just tried to go through your suggested troubleshoot however once I got into the TTY Text Console I could not type the symbol "|". Instead the button (shift + \) came up with "~".

Nevertheless, I tried all three of the options you mentioned and not much happened. For the "nVidia" and ",Intel" outputs, the insertions resulted in the boot screen stopping at the line "Checking battery state ... ". I wait for several minutes and nothing. When I inserted "radeon.mode=0", I got another line past this, but it too finished on the line:

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

Thanks Bao2. Unfortunately I haven't worked with these text based terminals before. What do I need to type in to open the "Additional Drives" program and what do I need to type in for the deactivation?

Re: Fresh Install of 11.10 problem

In the launcher to the left you have System Settings. Open and you have Additional drivers there too.

Then in Additional drivers you see two nvidia drivers and they must have the dot to the left in gray. If one is in green you are using that driver at this moment.
You must activate the driver that has "recommended". If you have the other, deactivate it, reboot and activate the "recommended".